Bridge that Gap: Great Central Railway News

The Ffestiniog's covid X set in daily use for the last two years would give you:

11 (1880)
12 (1880)
17 (1876)
21 (2019)
23 (1894)

A range of 143 years in one set.

If hauled by Prince (1863/4) - 155 years in one set.

 

Unfortunately that section contradicts itself: "The A60 bridge is the only part of the Reunification project which currently carries trains. However, it's in a very poor state, not only due to its age but because it is frequently struck by lorries. As a result, it's closed to rail traffic."
I suggest that "currently carries" should be changed to "until recently carried".
Also some explanation of what they plan to do about strikes would be helpful.

 

They were handing out a new leaflet about the A60 bridge appeal at todays GCR East Coast event......

 

Amendment to your point of order; the first new coach in the preservation era was no.18 which entered traffic in 1964 if my memory serves me well. Coaches 7-17 were all rebodies or rebuilds of imported stock and by no means new. I specifically excluded No.18 as the gap between it and originals was only 99 years.

 

I am surprised that there has been little notice taken of happening to the North.....All but two of the GCR(N)/NHR directors have resigned and been replaced by a solid team of leading reunification supporters. This happened Dec 21st as reported in the latest Trackside magazine issue #7.

 

At the risk of offending the NG contingent (not intended!), there's obviously a sub-thread where the question is rephrased, as IMO some of the examples, whilst unarguably correct, are not quite in the spirit of the original question.

The idea being seeing two rail vehicles, built 100 years apart for commercial use (not preservation), built using contemporary materials and design from those times - not replicas built to older designs or styles.

There's a big visual difference between seeing a wooden 6-wheeler crossing an HST and a 100 year old NG coach in the same formation as a 2019 built replica of a victorian coach.

I'm starting to feel guilty now for taking this way too far away from the GCR topic, perhaps it might be shovelled into another thread?

Sent from my moto g(8) power using Tapatalk

 

It's been an interesting and enlightening discussion- but yes I think perhaps better continued in an appropriate thread.

 

And that I think is key to finding an answer to how the combined line will be worked when the project is complete. Reading the list of directors I note there are several who are/ were also involved with the GCR and the FoGCML, would it be too far a stretch of the imagination to think this is a step toward ultimately hammering the two railways into one? In the more immediate term, the NHR Board was only changed last Summer, whilst they can't have done much more than get their feet under the desk, they must have got some work initiated. So changing the management so soon, does that mean we now have another six months ahead of us of the Board finding its feet again rather than action to get things up and running once more?

 

J Rob't I think some of the new board are well versed in the action in the North and others are well known, so I'm sure they will be up to speed very quickly. I expect there will be a lot of help from many people, both North and South, as they will see this as an end to unseemly bickering.
I look forward to seeing the North re-open properly, hopefully in time for the Summer. Then see some of the potential at Ruddington start to appear.

 

If the two organisations have either found or are finding a way to bridge the gap between them whilst the physical gap is replaced that is great news.

The potential end to end end state could be pretty special so hopefully this can move forward over the coming years.

 

Noting from yesterday's Rail Mail newsletter that something in the region of £2,000 was raised for the A60 bridge last weekend alone, which will be match funded by the LNER GC Heritage Trust. Let's hope that momentum can be maintained.

 

Apologies for coming back to this after a while but I never got round to replying (or found a new thread)

I would argue that the Ffestiniog of all the railways meets your criteria.

Up until the mid 1980s, it was common for the 4w bug boxes from the 1860s to run in the same as the tin coaches from the 1970s as standard. I think pretty much any photo from upto say the 2000s taken in high summer would give you a train showing the full range of carriage design covering 130 odd years.

Even these days as the line has moved to more modern stock I just had a look at the sets for 2019 the last year of 'traditional' running.

The high summer A set included:
152 - Pullman Obs 2018, 120 - Super Barn 2018, 124 - Late Barn 2007, 106 - original Barn 1968, 14 - L&B 1897, 22 - Ashbury 1896 (rebuilt),17 - Brown and Marshall 1876.

17 is about as traditional as it gets as a bowsider and 152/120 is about as modern as it gets and the set has examples of all the development of FR carriage development. (The remaining 1970s Tin Carriages and 1990s Carnforth Carriages can be found in the third set).

 

The Winter Gala has certainly been busy for the GCR and there was a "Friends" stand on the platform. I was told that over £30,000 has been raised for the A 60 Bridge fund so that is a great start and, if it continues, work should start possibly by late Summer. Fundraising for the "Factory Flyover" is also going well.

 

As of 12 Feb, more than £40,000 has been raised towards the £110,000 total, according to the FoGCML newsletter. This is really encouraging as they hope to start work on the A60 bridge very soon and complete it within the year.

 

In today's "Rail Mail" it says that the A60 bridge total has reached over £50,000 - which is fantastic.

 

Good news indeed (and a timely reminder to make my monthly contribution to the A60 part of the project).

It never ceases to amaze me how various 'Millionaire's Club' loco projects launch fundraisers along lines of 'we want x many people to donate £1000 each for wheels/ cylinders/ frames/ whatever' and people queue out the door to sign up. I wonder what sort of response this sort of project would get if a similar approach were taken? "We want 100 people to donate £1000 each for a new bridge"....

[crickets chirping as tumbleweeds roll by]

 

Over £70K for the A60 bridge appeal accrding to their latest update.... https://www.gcrailway.co.uk/unify/

 

That is seriously impressive fundraising, to go from £50K to £70K in less than a month. I expect that work on the A60 bridge will start after Easter, when they finish the bridge 341 at Swithland. Looking back on here, the A60 bridge fund only started in Mid January!

 

According to the GCR website today, the new A60 bridge has been ordered....and is expected to be erected around September and finished by the end of October.

 

And an updated video giving the details.